Vantage is one of Washington's great winter crags. The columnar basalt creates a great balance of sport and trad routes. The sport routes stick to the faces and range from 5.5 - 5.12+ and the cracks are found in between the columns and are of similar grades. All of the faces are out in the open and will get sun at some point in the day.
Getting There
Head East on I-90 from Seattle. Follow this over the columbia river past Vantage, WA. After a big hill take the second exit. At the bottom of the exit ramp take a left. Follow this road under the highway and take the first left. This will wind you down a canyon and you will see vantage on the left after about 10 minutes.
This is the free standing pillar with a striking green streaked face and clean double arete profile.An area classic that should not be missed.Start on the left side of the pillar climbing the left-hand arete, move right onto the face for a bit then out to the right-hand arete for a while then back left again below the anchor. Airy, technical, and exciting!...[more]
There is free camping available at Vantage, limited to the area on the south side of the Feathers. If you are climbing for the day or camping, please note that you are required to display one of the yellow Fish and Wildlife Deparment stickers on your vehicle. There is a fairly substanstial ticket if you are caught without one. You can pick up the stickers many places in Seattle, and Fred Meyer in Ellensburg sells them as well.
I used to live out there near the coulee and on a topo you can see that the area is called the frenchman hills. Maybe thats why they transferred the name. The canyon is a result of the big flood of glacier park way back when (discovery channel has an engaging history about it if you have time on a rainy day to sit on the couch). Who knows what its like to camp behind the feathers these days? It was getting pretty trashed last time I was there.
Vantage (Frenchman Coulee)
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